Political Quotes

“I bring to the attention of my colleagues Burundi, a small Central African country. There are 6 million people who live in Burundi. Each week, a civil insurgency tightens its grip on this poor African nation, causing the deaths of hundreds of people. The killing frenzy in Burundi has barely touched international headlines, as it has been dwarfed by the calamities striking Israel and Bosnia. But consider the situation if it were to occur in the United States. The United States has a population of about 260 million. Sliding the scale to the figures of the United States, we would see 30,000 Americans dying a week; 1,560,000 a year. Burundi, my colleagues, is on the brink of national suicide. The hostilities in Burundi are between the Tutsi-controlled army and Hutu rebels. The current turmoil is the fallout of the explosion of tensions between Tutsi's and Hutu's in 1993. That year, the country's first popularly elected President, a Hutu, was assassinated. In the chaotic aftermath of his death, tens of thousands of Burundians were killed, hundreds of thousands were displaced. Today, Burundi is ruled by a coalition of moderate Hutus and Tutsis who agreed to share power through the mediation of U.N. Secretary General's former special representative, Ambassador Ahmedou Abdallah. The moderates who lead this Government have tried to contain the violence. Their efforts, however, continue to be threatened by extremists on both sides.”